UPDATE 2-Suspected WikiLeaks source appears in U.S. court

* Hearing to determine if enough evidence for trial

* Manning, 23, charged with aiding the enemy

* Army not seeking death penalty

By Lily Kuo

FORT MEADE, MD., Dec 16 An American Army
intelligence analyst accused of giving hundreds of thousands of
classified U.S. documents to WikiLeaks for public disclosure
made his first court appearance on Friday to face charges
including aiding the enemy, which could send him to prison for
life.

Private First Class Bradley Manning, charged with supplying
WikiLeaks with massive dumps of classified U.S. documents, sat
quietly in the courtroom at Fort Meade, Maryland, wearing
military fatigues, dark-rimmed glasses and a short haircut.

He answered with a quick, "yes sir" as investigating
officer Lieutenant Paul Almanza asked him whether he understood
the charges against him.

After questioning Almanza, Manning attorney David Coombs
announced that the defense was filing a motion for the
investigating officer to recuse himself because of his work at
the Department of Justice.

The Justice Department is conducting an investigation of
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. If Justice "had its way,"
Coombs argued, it would get a plea from Manning that would help
it "go after Assange."

Security was tight as media and some protesters gathered at
the base, which also serves as the home of the
intelligence-gathering National Security Agency.

WikiLeaks eventually posted online hundreds of thousands of
sensitive diplomatic cables that exposed the candid views of
U.S. officials and their allies.

It also released about half a million classified U.S. files
on the Iraq and Afghan wars -- actions that Washington said
jeopardized national security.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday
called the WikiLeaks dump a "a very unfortunate and damaging
action ... that put at risk individuals and relationships."

Prosecutors aim to show there is sufficient evidence to
bring Manning to trial at a general court martial on 22
criminal charges.

If convicted of all counts, Manning would face a maximum
punishment of life imprisonment, reduction in rank to the
lowest enlisted pay grade, forfeiture of all pay and allowances
and a dishonorable discharge, the Army said in a statement.

The most serious charge, aiding the enemy, is a capital
crime that carries the death penalty, but the Army has
indicated it does not plan to seek that punishment.

For much of the time since his detention beginning in May
2010 in Iraq, Manning was held on a charge of improperly
obtaining a classified gunsight video that showed a 2007
helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Iraq, including
two Reuters journalists. The video was released publicly by
WikiLeaks.

The additional charges were brought against Manning last
spring.

DEFENDERS SEE A HERO

The proceedings begin one day before Manning, a Crescent,
Oklahoma, native, celebrates his 24th birthday.

Members of the Bradley Manning Support Network were
planning demonstrations on Friday outside Fort Meade and a
march outside the base on Saturday, joined by protesters from
the Occupy movement's encampments in Washington and on Wall
Street, the organizations said.

Daniel Ellsberg, who released the controversial history of
the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers in 1971, is
expected to address the protesters on Saturday along with
former military veterans and diplomats, Manning supporters said
in an email.

Manning defenders see him as a hero. Some view the release
of the cables, with their frank discussion of corruption in
some countries, as having contributed to the Arab Spring
protests in the Middle East.

"He stands accused of doing the right thing," said Zack
Pesavento, who was at Fort Meade on Friday morning.

Manning was caught after he bragged about his activities to
former hacker Adrian Lamo, who turned him in to authorities,
Lamo told Reuters.

Lamo said Manning, who worked as an intelligence analyst
for the 10th Mountain Division's 2nd Brigade in Iraq, told him
he would come into work with music on a recordable CD labeled
"something like 'Lady Gaga.'" He would then erase the music and
download data from the military's Secret Internet Protocol
Router Network, known as SIPRNet.

Manning said he "listened and lip-synced to Lady Gaga's
song 'Telephone' while exfiltrating possibly the largest data
spillage in (A)merican history," according to a transcript of
his Internet chats with Lamo, the details of which were
confirmed by Lamo to Reuters and which were published by Wired
Magazine.

In his Internet chats with Lamo, Manning appears to
acknowledged giving materials to Assange. He wrote to Lamo:
"I'm a high profile source ... and
I've developed a relationship with Assange."

Assange is in Britain fighting extradition to
Sweden over accusations of rape and sexual assault made by two
female former WikiLeaks volunteers in August 2010. Britain's
Supreme Court said on Friday it granted permission for Assange
to appeal his case.

FRANKFURT/LONDON, Dec 9 The European Central
Bank hopes its decision to confront struggling Italian bank
Monte dei Paschi at last will draw a line under a multi-year
crisis that has risked tarnishing its reputation as a credible
supervisor.

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